Do you believe a birthday cake without the candles can create the same atmosphere? Biotechnology researchers in Taiwan think the luminescent cake they have developed can do so and believe that such a cake has market potential.

At a biotechnology development and planning forum held yesterday at Fu Jen Catholic University in Hsinchuang, Taipei County, a biotech company put several such birthday and wedding cakes on display, attracting overwhelming media attention and publicity.

The cakes - the first of their kind in Taiwan - have a beautiful luminescence because of their cream coating which contains a special protein acquired with the latest biotechnology from Taiwan's endemic red algae.

According to Cheng Chun-ming, a biotechnology scientist from National Taiwan University who started his own business several years ago and maker of the cakes, the phosphorescent protein extracted from the red algae helps increase a cake's attractiveness but is not a health concern to consumers as it is completely natural and edible.

A Russian company commander has admitted beating his soldiers with a dildo.

Captain Damir Ilyasov received a two-year suspended sentence for battering his subordinates with a ''black latex baton shaped like a male sex organ''.

The soldiers, however, said at the military court hearing that the commander ''only hit them lightly''.

According to The Gazeta the story came to light after Private Ruslan Machnev deserted from the unit's base in the town of Verkhnyaya Pyshma.

He was recaptured and military prosecutors intended to charge him with desertion.

But the soldier said he had fled after being unable to put up with the relentless taunting that Ilaysov, his company commander, directed at him. The prosecutors checked the soldier's claims, which turned out to be true.

The captain carried out so-called ''night formations'' in his unit, waking the soldiers at night and lining them up to check their uniforms.

Those who were not looking after their uniforms properly were beaten with the dildo, which Ilyasov had bought in a sex shop.

In court, the captain pleaded guilty and said he was sorry for what had happened. The soldiers spoke in defence of their commander.

Apart from the two-year sentence, Ilyasov, who has two young children, has also been stripped of his officer's rank and removed from his post.